It’s a new era of club basketball for the Minnesota Suns
The Minnesota Suns started from humble beginnings 15 years ago when Peter Long launched the club with two teams – one for daughter Rachel and another for daughter Lexi – and grew it into one of the largest AAU operations in the state. Now the Suns are moving into a new era as Dre Jefferson and Lexi Long assume the reigns of the organization.
“People need to know that things are going to be different with the Suns,” Jefferson said. “That’s not disrespectful to where we came from. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Peter and the work that he did, if he had not welcomed me into such a great family environment, but we need to build a strong foundation from the youngest grades on up. We’re starting over.”
Lexi is an engineer who played Division II basketball at the South Dakota School of Mines. She’ll sign the checks and run the business side of things. Jefferson, who played basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, will direct the basketball operations. He has been with the club for the past eight years and has witnessed the ups and downs first hand. Along the way he has helped to develop a lot of players and had some strong teams. He has also built a reputation in girls basketball circles as a straight shooter who understands the game at a high level and wants the best for his kids. Now he is ready to assume responsibility for more than just his own team.
“For the last three or four years Peter has been asking me to take a more active role and I just haven’t had the time,” said Jefferson, who is the facilities director for Hopkins schools and was on Brian Cosgriff’s coaching staff for the Royals. “Three years ago he brought me down to the Blue Star meeting in Dallas and I met a lot of people there who are as passionate as I am about basketball. There were also a lot of African American people, too, and we don’t see that as much in Minnesota. I loved it and started connecting with those men and women and just building relationships. It has been very motivating so I finally told Peter I was ready to jump in and take over the organization. I feel like I have always been able to make my teams a reflection of who I am. Whether we are good, bad or indifferent, we are going to work extremely hard, play the right way and be true to the game that I owe so much to. Now I feel comfortable that we can do that with the whole organization.”
Peter Long is confident that the organization he created is in good hands. “Dre’s love for the game is unparalleled. Nobody works harder,” Long said. “He has taken that passion and in turn is looking for families with that same love to join the organization. It’s the new norm to have 40 or 50 kids at his skill workouts. Parents just want to have their kids around him.”
Consistency is key
Minnesota produces an inordinate number of college basketball players for the size of the state. The competition is fierce, and every AAU club has to stay on its toes or they’ll get run over from behind. While the club has developed a great reputation for its off-season training and player development, the product on the floor has varied greatly from one Suns team to another as has the talent level and the quality of the player experience.
“I think consistency is the biggest thing that’s going to change,” Jefferson said. “I have certain expectations from players, from coaches and from parents. You have to be true to what you want to do and people who are part of your organization have to be that way, too. At times in the past we may have compromised our principles for a kid that may have been more talented than the normal kid that we would have gotten. In the long run that just hurts you because there’s always going to be a bigger, better offer that comes along. We’re just not going to compromise on those things. Our coaches are going to be held to a much higher standard, not only when it comes to the work that they are doing throughout the course of the season but the work that they are doing in the off-season.”
The rebuild will no doubt be focused around Jefferson’s own 2024 team, which has a collection of players who will be drawing plenty of attention in the years to come.
The squad is led by Tori Oehrlein of Crosby-Ironton. She is a member of the class of 2026 playing two years up, a highly-talented athlete who could turn out to be one of the very best we’ve seen in recent years. Her teammates Nicole Maenke of Shakopee and Piper Engelby Piper Engelby 5'11" | SG Andover | 2024 State MN of Andover are both high-level prospects, as is lengthy forward Lila Posthuma of Prescott, Wisc. Jefferson recently added two of the top players in the 2024 class in Amy Thompson Amy Thompson 5'10" | SG Stillwater | 2024 State MN (Stillwater) and Claire Stern (Maple Grove). It is a formidable group that should be able to make some noise on the national Blue Star circuit.
How important is the 2024 team’s success to the Suns’ rebuild? “It’s huge,” Jefferson said. “When you see a club’s top team competing with the best you think that is the ceiling. If the best team in your club isn’t very good then the ceiling is low and the expectation is, ‘I need to go somewhere else to have my dreams come true.’ You can’t blame kids for that. If we have kids that are talented, who are going to make a splash on the recruiting circuit, who are going to be important players on their high school teams, and are connected and committed to our program, now the kids will see, ‘Oh, I can do that with the Suns, too.’ I feel like we have those players and those coaches in our organization now.”
The 2023 team has talent, as well, with highly-rated prospects Jhanae Green Jhanae Green 5'7" | CG Mpls Southwest | 2023 State MN , Karlee Fisher Karlee Fisher 5'7" | CG Armstrong | 2023 State MN and Shantell Harden Shantell Harden 6'0" | SF St. Louis Park | 2023 State MN expected to return next summer. Also joining coach De’Ante Michaud will be Eden Prairie guard Priyanka Satish Priyanka Satish 5'4" | PG Eden Prairie | 2023 MN and Cristo Rey forward Ella Pritchard Ella Pritchard 5'11" | SF Holy Angels | 2023 State MN . The club has elected not to put a 2022 team on the floor next season because there was not enough talent available to meet the new standard. “We thought it was best to start fresh, to start from scratch. 2023 and 2024 are strong classes for us. We want people to look at those teams and say, ‘This is what the Suns are about now.’”
Going forward the Suns will have smaller rosters, more demanding practices, and a much stronger national schedule. Jefferson plans to take a team to the Boo Williams tournament for the first time in more than a decade as the club seeks to become relevant on a national level. “That’s the goal,” Jefferson said. “We want to be able to compete with our sister clubs like Wisconsin Purple Aces, Ohio United and Chicago Hoops Express, clubs that consistently put out high quality teams and consistently compete on a high level nationally. They do it the right way. We want to get our kids in that same mindset. We’ve got the kids with the potential to get there, we just have to groom them.”
Top photo: Suns director/coach Dre Jefferson and some of his 2024 Blue Star team.